Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Is the Best Defence an Offence ?

I enjoy playing chess, and when I was learning , my father taught me that the best defence is an offence.... if I can steadily apply pressure, my opponent will become distracted and mistake my confidence , thinking that I am in better shape then I actually am... the offence masks our weakness.... Dad taught me that when my opponent comes on strong, there is usually weakness or vulnerability in his action.....This has been a lesson that I have seen play out time to time in real life, not just in a game..... I remembered this lesson when I read this blog post recently
"By the same token, it can be very easy to wonder where He is when we see
children suffering and unloved, handicapped men without heat or proper nutrition
, and people dying of AIDS? How can we see tragedies of seeming enormous
proportion such as the fires in Australia and not question where was God? We can
not see Him, because we don't want to see inside our own hearts to find Him, we
don't want to feel obligated to act so we work very hard to ignore that He
dwells in us, that we ARE His tools here on earth. By asking where He is, by
blaming Him for not being present or actually ignoring His presence, it lets US
off the hook, doesn't it? Nothing then is required of us."Cindy Lajoy.
I don't know how many times I have thought the same thing... where is God in this.... It usually comes with a strong desire to get in the car and go.... Now I know that some of you will be shocked to think that I could just turn my head on a situation and pretend it does not exist... but truth be told, you can only take so much... when you try to do it on your own strength..... But if you are truly open to the answer to that question "Where is God in this?" you will be drawn back... I looked at this situation the first time, and got back in the car..... I asked the question, then I realized that now that I know ... this is my responsibility....


The next time we returned, I brought my family with me and we went in and had a "Joyfull Christmas..". we brought presents and I even made French toast with real Canadian Maple syrup for everyone... The girls went around to those that were shut in and brought the food to them..... For a moment , no one asked where God was in that place... it was clear, but as we left I became overwhelmed again , and for the next six months I asked myself ... "Where is God in this ?".... Last month, the answer was reveled to me again when one of the sponsors of the iam1ru site donated the funds to build a water tower for them ... this May a team from PI will be heading there to oversea the construction of the water tower as well as bringing heat to another section of the institution.....I think Cindy hit the nail on the head when she said that we think that by "ignoring His presence, it lets US off the hook."

So you have asked the question recently ?..... what are you trying to avoid ?


2 comments:

Cindy LaJoy said...

John, I am honored to be quoted on your blog. I am even more deeply moved that anything I have said could have touched you. I love your honesty in admitting that you WANTED to ignore His presence, that you WANTED to turn tail and run. For you, of all people, to admit such things helps all of us to know we are not alone in those feelings.

And yet we must not give in to them. When we do, we are denying ourselves the opportunity to be in communion with Him, even when it at first doesn't feel like it, even when it is so very, very hard.

Thanks for being someone who continually reminds me of this myself.

Cindy

Julie and John Wright said...

Cindy... I discussed this with a very wise friend of mine that I depend on his council.... He pointed out that the very fact that we recognise a situation and would ask "Where is God" is proff that he is already there... for it is his light that eluminates that darkness.... with out him, things are simply excepted as the norm... situations that we have also found in the past. .... something to think about...